![]() Yet our sympathy doesn’t diminish an air of foreboding that only gets stronger as the film progresses.Ĭut Snake is a film noir set in the broad daylight of the Australian suburbs. Ayres and scriptwriter, Blake Ayshford, make us feel a twinge of sympathy for Pommie, who appears to have led a life without options. For Pommie, whom the police will describe as a cold-blooded killer, the young sparra may be the only human being he’s ever loved. Pommie has a hold over him that is much deeper than he wants to admit. It’s a nightmare for Merv, who sees his carefully-constructed new life disappearing fast. When he is teased during a drag show, Pommie’s murderous rage surges to the surface, and a chain of violent events is initiated. The uneasy equilibrium is maintained until the young couple take Pommie out on a double date with Paula’s friend, Yvonne (Megan Holloway). ![]() This comes so naturally he can’t believe Merv doesn’t want to join him in a caper. When he needs money his first option is a break-in or an assault. He tries to be charming, and helpful around the house, but his thoughts are on other matters. The best Merv can do is introduce him to Paula as an old friend and hope for Pommie’s discretion, but the guest from hell is too mad and too dangerous to hold the line for long. None of this makes any impression on Pommie, who turns up at Merv’s door and invites himself to stay. His deepest ambition is to live the suburban dream. To Jessica’s comfortably well-off parents and friends, he is an upright young man. He has told no-one about his stint in prison, putting all his energy into making a fresh start. He has moved to Melbourne, got a steady job, a house, and a fiancée, Paula (Jessica De Gouw). Merv, however, is not hanging out for a reunion. When he is let out of prison in Sydney, his first priority is to track down his former cellmate, Merv (Alex Russell) whom he refers to as “young sparra”. A true psychopath has no feelings for anyone, but this is not the case with Pommie. #Cut snake sparra and pommie movie#What lifts the character above the B movie stereotypes is a fierce capacity for love and loyalty that simmers beneath the menacing shell. It’s a performance that deserves to win awards. Stapleton ensures that every time Pommie appears on screen we start clutching the sides of our cinema seats. On this occasion he is not merely a bad guy but an incipient psychopath – a hard man with a short fuse and an instinctive flair for violence. He is played by Sullivan Stapleton, an actor you may remember from Animal Kingdom (2010), who seems forever destined to be cast as a cop or a criminal. The ‘cut snake’ is ex-convict James Stewart, known by the nickname of “Pommie”. The first song we hear is Lynsey De Paul’s Sugar Me. ![]() The latest is Tony Ayres’s Cut Snake, which takes us on an anti-nostalgic journey through the Australian suburban sprawl, and the ghastly fashions that dominated that decade. A growing number of new films are either set in the seventies or draw upon the music of that era. It’s a chilling prospect but we seem to be in the midst of a seventies revival. ![]()
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